Fabio Wardley pinpoints two reasons for his defeat to Daniel Dubois

Fabio Wardley blames his performance on two factors

Fabio reveals plans to come back and win a second world title, just like Dubois did

Last Saturday night, October 17 in London, Fabio Wardley (20-2-1, 19 KOs) was dropped in the opening round of his rematch with WBO World heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, live on DAZN, then stopped soon after in the second.

The 31-year-old from Ipswich was looking for revenge of his only ever defeat in boxing against Dubois last May, when he was stopped in round 11 of the first defence of his WBO belt, which he inherited when Oleksandr Usyk vacated it.

In their first fight, Wardley dropped Dubois twice early, but the Londoner rallied back and gave Fab a brutal beatdown until the referee showed mercy in the penultimate round.

That same beating immediately ensued from the opening bell of the rerun, just an exact continuation from fight one. Wardley was all at sea, totally outclassed in a mismatch which left him badly beaten for a second time. Speaking after the fight, he tried to pinpoint where it all went wrong.

He said on the DAZN broadcast: "You can really shorten it and say the preparation for me wasn’t ideal.

"And Daniel learned the most from the first fight and came out with a better game plan.

“That’s all it was if you want to boil it down to the nitty-gritties.

“But there’s time for that later when we go over it as a team, we sit down, and we go over the details of what happened.

“Right now, I lost. It is what it is. Daniel’s a testament to losing and coming back and winning the world title for a second time.

“I will be looking to do the same thing.”

Dave Allen said on talkSPORT Breakfast: "Yeah people were saying the towel was on time and perfect at the weekend.

"But I think it was five months too late, the first fight looks to have ruined him for me.

"He looked like a different person, the spark looks to have been lost. It takes a bit out of you when you are in there too long."

Dubois cemented his position as the no.1 heavyweight in the UK after his blistering performance. He now has an option of a unification with former victim, Filip Hrgovic, next, who currently owns the IBF belt, or an all-British showdown with the winner of Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury for the WBA Super title.